I meant to post an entry about a recent visit to Jerez a few days ago, but due to being out on tour so much I haven’t got round to it until now. I spent two days with a group of five women from Hong Kong who did the tour to the Sierra of Aracena and the one to Jerez. In Jerez we visited two wineries and in the first photo below you can see fino sherry being taken out of the sherry butts. The wine is being taken out of butts that correspond to the second “criadera”. The wine will subsequently be introduced into butts that compose the first “criadera”. If this all sounds foreign to you, then you must come on a sherry tour with me!

In the second photo my clients are just starting the wine tasting at the end of the visit. I think they are just about to taste a manzanilla.

In the third photo, taken at the second winery, you can see my friend Andrés serving wine directly from the sherry butt using a “venencia”. Andrés has worked in the sherry industry all his adult life and it is said that he has amontillado running throuhg his veins instead of blood!